ESXENCE 2015: What About Oud?

by: Elena Knezhevich

Once perfumers get such a Klondike as oud, it seems they will mine it forever. The good news is that we are all now getting more relaxed about this ingredient and can explore its wonders without hysterical greed.

At Esxence it wasn't a major part of the menu, but still we smelled it a lot, especially taking into consideration several new brands from the Middle East. I noticed two oud trends: raw "stable"-smelling oud and refined oud in all possible elegant interpretations. Creators of these two different kinds of oud expressed a strong wish for separation from each other.

Аdherents of raw-smelling oud insisted on its natural precious sources, ironically looking to those who brought "fake-smelling artistic" ouds. "If you smell a horse stable, hay, animalic something, please do enjoy and appreciate this rare and natural material."

The other party was sarcastic about this "natural" mess and promoted oud as a starting point of compositions which show unexpected faces of oud. "If you smell a horse stable, then people simply do not know how to work with this precious material."

After smelling these different ouds and listening to their arguments, I can say that both directions are marvelous. After all, oud is oud and it doesn't need any advocating. By the way, I am a strong believer that to smell real oud we do not need a real natural source of it. Let those trees grow uninfected—let's develop our science.

Oud Ankaa Ys-Uzac

It was released before Esxence, but it is still new, from 2015. I remember a remark on my own fragrance which was one year old at that time—"but this is old!"—and call upon everyone to slow down their pace. After all, we smell scents to capture moments of our lives and we'll need those preserves later.

Oud Ankaa appeals to the raw oud, "unfiltered," dirty. Here you smell, as I defined above, a horse stable with its inhabitant, food and ... saying in general, its lifestyle. I found Oud Ankaa very energetic and beasty. With its main oudy oud direction you can feel leathery, woody nuaces. Its animalic dirtiness is not unpleasant—it is very much addictive.

The Spirit of Dubai

The Spirit of Dubai is a new brand from the Middle East. The whole presentation reflected how self-confident and proud of their creations the owners were. Coming from a jewelry and luxurious watches background, the creators paid special attention to the design of the flacons and packaging: along with the very fine silky leather of their boxes, different, very "touchy-feely" surfaces on different bottles, I was also introduced to a special "click" produced by the cap when closing.

The fragrances represent essential elements of UAE: horse races, the blue sea, the desert, architectural wonders and oud as a beloved fragrance of their people. All the fragrances deserve your attention, but here we are talking about Oud. It is their most expensive perfume, it smells natural, woody, dirty and strong. I had a really good sniff of it. In response to my excuse about not having any free spot on my hands to try the fragrance, I was literally bathed in it like people from the Middle East do, as they explained: they sprayed it all over themselves, refreshing the fragrance several times during the day. My dress still smells of pure Oud by The Spirit of Dubai. It has blocked all other smells and I must admit, I do enjoy it.

VII AJ ARABIA

VII AJ ARABIA was created to celebrate the 43rd national day of the UAE and it is limited to the to the brand’s homeland market. Ali Aljaberi created VII considering the special taste of his fellow citizens and the special love they feel towards oud. By the way, Ali Aljaberi blends his perfumes himself and gets professional help from Jean-Claude Astier in order to build the perfect structure of his own blends.

VII AJ ARABIA is a very animalic and persistent oud, the most animalic of all I smelled at Esxence. If you wish this strong and multifaceted animalic sensation, go for it. Ali Aljaberi insists he used the most expensive and refined oil he could get. He didn't have any other choice considering the audience he has chosen.

To illustrate a different, more artistic approach to oud, I've chosen several examples I admired at Esxence. As I said I like both directions, naturalistic oud is the most relevant choice if you want to embrace yourself with an oriental luxury. Oud as an element of composition, more subtle and playful, is addictive no less.

AMOUROUD

Amouroud is an American brand from New York, entirely devoted to oud. Its creators wished to show how beautiful oud can be if you use it with a light hand in a beautiful enviroment. I had at least six favorites among the 10 perfumes of the collection. Even traditional blends of oud and rose, oud and sandalwood, surprised me.

They matched precisely my own point of their beauty. You have sandalwood everywhere, but this sandalwood was simply the one I loved before I smelled it. Amouroud is not yet established on the market. They are careful with distributors, but I am sure we will hear of them soon, a lot.

Au Pays de la Fleur d’Oranger Neroli Oud

Au Pays de la Fleur d’Oranger did it again! They surprised everybody with their unusual oud fragrance, Neroli Oud, a refreshing elegant oud with bergamot, neroli and a hint of jasmine.

Their other novelty, Eau de Madeleine, didn't have oud, but it smelled like it did, and not only to me. Eau de Madeleine smelled much more complex, darker and more gourmand than uplifting Neroli Oud.

MORESQUE

Moresque is a new Italian brand inspired by the beauty of Arabian perfumery. Its presentation was impressive: the opaque white and black flacons, and their crystal brothers, were standing on special trays inspired by the Moorish art style, on the marble table.

The goal was to reveal "subtle luxury, style and distinction." Again, raw oud was not their aim, but different unexplored oud faces. The fragrances were developed by perfumer Carlo Ribero.

Here, I still haven't mentioned Montale and Mancera, traditional producers of oud wonders, and many other brands with perfumes which are worth your attention, but we will dedicate special reviews to all you might have liked at Esxence.

Photos by Elena Knezhevich